Piggie pipe dreams come to life in this agreeable book.
One little piggie dreams of flying…can it really happen?
One windy day, Ollie the pig watches leaves float on the breeze. Flapping his trotters in the air, he gets his human friend Jack to tie branches to his back. They go to the top of the hill, and Ollie runs down at top speed. He leaps into the air and flies…for a second before crashing. The next day Ollie sees kites in the sky and takes feed sacks, garden stakes, and twine to Jack. Jack makes him a kite/parachute. Back to the hill they go. He runs, he jumps, and “A strong breeze caught the kite at once. / I’m flying! / I’m flying, / I’m… // OOOOOOMPH! / PLOP!” Geese in the sky inspire an attempt with homemade feathered wings. An umbrella caught in a storm gives rise to an attempt to mimic Mary Poppins. The result never changes. Poor Ollie still dreams of flying. Good thing he has a friend like Jack to make him a hot air balloon! Award-winning Canadian author Coates spins a porcine tale of dreams, perseverance, and friendship. Del Rizzo’s colorful illustrations, made with Plasticine, polymer clay, and “other doodads,” are a good match, although at times they struggle with perspective, causing the characters and landscapes alike to look squashed. Ollie and light-skinned Jack are expressive, though, and they have a fey appeal.
Piggie pipe dreams come to life in this agreeable book. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-927485-98-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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